Since, many of your budgets for putting videos on the internet are probably small, you’ll probably want to put downloadable videos on-line and you can use a regular web server to do so. This is the same server that you would use to host your website. These videos will be downloadable streaming movies and not real-time streaming videos (To learn more about the differences in the two visit www.GeniusDV.com and look under Video Compression Tutorials to find my article on Downloadable vs. Streaming.)

Basically, the videos placed on your web server need to be downloaded to the user’s computer before viewers will be able to view them. If you are posting your videos through your web hosting service you’ll probably have a size limitation on how large you video files can be. It’s usually a file size limit around 10MB to 15MB. To keep your file size down you’ll want to use a Video Compression tool. You can use Video Compression tools such as Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite, Canopus ProCoder or Popwire’s Compression Master.

Another option for adding your music videos on-line is to purchase an inexpensive monthly video hosting service from a company called WebFlix Cinema. They have hosting plans to host up to three videos in the Windows Media, QuickTime format or MPEG1 format for $5.75 per month. All you do is prepare your movies with your Video Compression Tool and use an FTP Client to upload your compressed videos to the WebFlix Cinema servers. You don’t have to worry about setting up a webpage.

WebFlix Cinema creates a page that hosts your video and provides you with a link to the video. It’s a really simple to use service. If you don’t want to purchase a video compression tool you can send your videos to WebFlix Cinema and for an additional fee they will compress your videos in Windows Media, QuickTime or MPEG1.

The company is able to host downloadable and real-time videos on their servers. For the price it’s the best solution that I have seen on the web for video hosting at such a small price. The company also provides an on-line forum to provide tips and how to’s for their customers as well as to receive user feedback on how the service can be made better.

For more detail about WebFlix Cinema’s streaming services go to www.webflixcinema.com

To learn more about streaming your music videos, visit Genius DV for details about our Video Compression class.

An award winning editor, Alan Chementi’s love of the blend of effects and storytelling brought him to visual effects powerhouse Radium in 2002 after a 12-year tenure at Western Images. Chimenti has nearly a 100 music videos to his credit, including Green Day, NSYNC, Soundgarden, Dave Matthews Band, Cake, and No Doubt and at least twice as many commercial spots for clients such as Honda, Lexus, Gap, and Intel.

MVWire kindly asked me to provide some of my musings and techniques on the “art” of music video editorial. It CAN sometimes be “art”, sometimes merely commerce, but usually it’s a happy medium in between. Having cut somewhere around 100 music videos starting back in 1991 on early incarnations of AVID, as well as linear based tape systems, I can offer up many thoughts. As I still cut primarily on an AVID Media Composer, I will reference AVID concepts and terminologies throughout the following paragraphs, (but most of the terms and techniques apply to AVID Xpress Pro, too). Of course, the editorial software of choice should never matter, be it Final Cut Pro, Vegas Video, Adobe Premier, or even iMovie. The platform is irrelevant. Obviously some software can handle more diverse formats than others, or has more bells and whistles, but what music video editorial (and all editorial, for that matter) ultimately comes down to is the storytelling.

A few things to keep in mind, not only when starting a video, but also throughout the entire process are:

Concept – What is the story that the director wants to tell? The video is ultimately the director’s vision and it’s up to the editor not only to execute that vision, but ideally to bring something to the table that the director didn’t expect. Of course, if you direct and edit your own work, then the process becomes streamlined. If you’re editing for someone else, be sure to repeatedly reference the director’s treatment throughout the process to be sure that you are adhering to the story and ideas that they are trying to present.

Components – How will the various elements (band performance, narrative action, graphic implementation, etc.) blend together to create an entertaining and cohesive video? Where might each of these components fall in the grand scheme of the piece? Are they constructed in a way that not only builds throughout, but also punctuates and supports the music?

Execution – What is the idea for the final look for the piece? Is it graphic? Gritty? Animated? Will there be CG elements? On what platform will it be completed? Discreet Flame? After Effects? On Final Cut Pro itself? Keep in mind how each of the judgments that you choose might not only make the piece better, but could have a drastic impact the final budget and delivery schedule. You want to be sure that you can deliver what you promise, and hopefully it is above and beyond the call of duty. In this industry, it seems that you’re only as good as your last video.

Personally, I approach all music videos the same way (granted that they are performance based). The majority of music videos that I cut are still shot on film (as opposed to tape or DV) so I have the added luxury of having all of the music synched up with the performance in the telecine process, as well as having both a clean set of final DigiBetas, and a set of “work tapes” (Beta SP, 3/4” or DV) with windows burned in. The windows reference the Address Track timecode of the master tapes (for the final assembly or “conform”), the Keycode™ of the film (in case I need a specific shot re-transferred), and the timecode of the song from the playback DAT (so I always know where I’m at in the song). These are the normal steps that I follow upon receiving the final transferred film:

1) Load, or “digitize” all of the window-burned material into the AVID, viewing and occasionally making notes as I go.

2) Break out “subclip” all of the performance and narrative takes (eliminating the sync audio track at this point).

3) Sync the “subclipped” performance takes together with what will ultimately be the final track using a common sync point between the takes utilizing the “Group Clip” function on AVID. The result of this is that all of my performance takes are now tied to a single master audio bed, and it actually allows me to toggle through all of my takes at any point in the song and see what my performance choices are. When I start editing, I use the “group” audio bed as the base audio bed in my master sequence. This allows me to “match back” at any point in my master sequence to my source “group”. I’m not sure that there is a comparable function to “Group Clip” in any of the other edit systems. It is something that AVID perfected way back in the ‘90’s, and has always been a lynchpin of music video editorial. It allows you to FLY through performance editorial. Grouping various performance takes to a common audio track also ensures the playback levels will be consistent with whatever imagery I’m viewing, so I’m not constantly tweaking my speakers for a comfortable playback level. Of course, for other NLEs that don’t have such a function, the next best trick is to lay out all of your performance takes vertically (separate takes on individual video layers), and “cross-patch” the video layer that you want to your master sequence for that particular shot.

A side note about synching tracks:

In AVID you also have the ability to “gang” the “group clip” in the source monitor with the master clip that you are cutting, so that wherever you are in the sequence, the source will follow. I believe this is “Linked Selection” in FCP.

For synching video and audio to a SmartSlate without a record label produced DAT tape, there is always the tried-and-true “Mike Sloat Method” (as lifted from the MV Wire Community pages):

Mike’s preferred playback method takes the music audio track into Final Cut Pro on a laptop and put it on audio track 1, starting at 01:00:00:00 (your time line should have a good amount of pre roll as well; in the user preferences menu, set up the time line to start at about 00:59:35:00). Then set up a SMPTE time code file* on audio track 2, starting at the beginning of the time line. From the laptop, send the left channel (track 1) to the audio playback device, and the SMPTE time code (audio track 2, right channel) to the smart slate*. This way, you have a visual cue in the FCP time line as to where you need playback from, as well as an audio cue. In post, you’ll get rid of the SMPTE track, leaving the music audio track right where it is, parked at hour 1. You can also put markers in the timeline for a quick way to get to different sections of the song.

**Stereo Mini OUT from the computer to quarter inch splitter; right channel to smart slate, left channel to the audio

One other note about syncing music with video: If you don’t have the luxury of having a “SmartSlate” or the “Mike Sloat method” on set to display playback timecode and have to resort to manually synching up the performance, remember to look for defining actions such as drum hits or vocal “percussives” such as “P”s or “B”s, to assure accuracy.

4) Break out all of the narrative elements (and break those down into subsets – using “locators” to mark the beginning of each of the takes for a scene as well as the really sweet/interesting spots). Colored “locators” in AVID allow easy cataloging, sorting, display, navigation and retrieval of said material.

5) I often create a “meltdown” sequence of interesting, or “must-have” shots that I come across as I review the footage. I keep adding to this sequence throughout the entire editorial process as you inevitably find more and more interesting shots through your regular workflow. I can easily call this sequence up if I need a unique shot. Sometimes, I will actually cut small stand-alone stories with the footage and later insert sections of it into the performance cut to begin telling the story.

A side note about organization:
Though this entire organizational part is time consuming, it is the backbone that allows the rest of the project to evolve more quickly. I cannot stress enough that organization is one of the most important aspects of any type of editorial. You have to know the location and status of all of your assets, especially when you are editing with clients in the suite. This goes not only for raw footage, but also for graphic elements, sound effects, titles, effect set-ups, etc. Your knowledge of the material and the ability to be able to call up client requests immediately upon their command, displays not only editorial knowledge and prowess, but also an understanding of the process, and a professional work ethic.

6) I’ll usually then take a day or so and cut together a loose approximation of the performance (hunting and pecking as I go), which, for me, performs several functions:
a) I begin to become familiar with the material
b) I start to give the video a pace (usually cued by the music), altering the structure to see (or feel) where things should move quickly or languidly, letting the edits reinforce the song’s pacing.
c) I have a performance bed, which is now the basis to build a narrative upon.

I always make sure that no matter what, the first line of the first verse is on the singer (as well as having most of the first verse feature the band). This is the most effective way to make sure that your viewing audience knows who the components of the band are, and establish their presence in the viewer’s mind. Though we all seek to create pieces of art with our work, music videos are more often than not marketing vehicles to sell the musicians, so it is important that the viewer is left with a favorable impression of the performers.

As I edit, I begin formulate an idea where the narrative might start to come into play, using verses, choruses, and musical cues to best dictate where plotlines should appear. I usually utilize other video layers in my timeline to build the narrative. This makes it simple to locate these sections and easy to move them around to other parts of the song without disrupting any of the existing performance bed.

From there its just going back and forth over the video, concentrating on the different sections, all the while keeping the entire piece as a whole in mind. Using feeling to add bit upon bit of performance to highlight the subtle nuances of the music (a drum fill, or bass accent that may normally go unnoticed is suddenly brought to the viewers attention), creating bits of interplay between band members, and making little sub-stories of the main plot line. It’s incredible how creating these little back-stories to the action end up reinforcing the narrative. Director Nathan Cox (also an incredible editor in his own right), once told me when I was cutting for him about his theory of the “power of three”. Basically, to tell a strong story, you need three shots: a set-up, a reaction, and a conclusion. I forget Nathan’s exact terminology, but it’s something like “one shot is an idea, two is a mistake, and three is a concept.” I’m not saying that this is etched in stone, but the human mind seems to easily link 3 ideas together. Use shots that either build or juxtapose action in order to reinforce the storyline. Apply concepts like motion vectors to help move the action along and direct the viewer’s eye where you want it to be. Utilize techniques such as flopping an image or slowing the motion to see if it heightens the drama that you are trying to create; or distort or speed up an image if you are trying to convey comedy. Look for “quirky” shots, too. Ones where a performer’s or actor’s guard is down just enough to let an inner innocence shine through. Quite often this is at the roll-up or roll-out of a take, when they are at their most human. It’s amazing how much this connects to a view at an emotional level.

As I feel that I’m getting close to having a pretty good piece, I then sit down and re-watch the performance takes to see what I might have missed. Does this close-up vocal line work better than the one that I already have there? No. Well, can I slip the sync and use that vocal in the next chorus? Stuff like that. Where can elements that are not necessarily in sync with the current place in the song be utilized in other parts of the song, be it a cymbal crash or guitar lick? I do the same with the narrative takes. There will often be more good shots in the various performance takes than can fit in the time allotted for the video, so at some point, some of your favorite shots will have to be jettisoned for the good of the entire piece.

One great thing about non-linear edit systems is that it’s very easy to move around the timeline and work on different portions when you become bogged down in one. I find music videos much like painting or drawing a picture – you move around the various areas and add a little more “highlight” here and a little more “shadow” there – all the while attempting to create a balance of the piece as a whole. And, of course, the beginning of the video is always the hardest part. I usually just skip this when I’m starting out and come back to it when I feel that I actually have some momentum going on in the video.

Non-linear editors also make it easy to create a copy of your sequence at any point so that you not only have a back-up of various stages of the video’s evolution (should something drastic happen to your current sequence that you cannot “un-do” out of, but you also have a track record of progress and are able to go back and review if what you had at a particular point may have been better than additional changes that you might have made.

Another thing that I often do is roll off work in progress to a VHS or DVD and look at it in another environment. This really helps you feel what is working and what is not. I also let other people take a look at the video when I’m nearing completion to see if they are reacting the way that I want them to, and, if not, why? (Quite often, since it’s still work-in-progress, you have to take responses with a grain of salt).

At some point, it’s just done – I don’t know how or why, but it is. You step away and send it off to the record label for comments. The whole process usually takes me between 4 to 6 days (12-15 hour days), sometimes more (in the case of an effects-heavy piece, or a “big-ticket” performer where feedback comes in layers).

Finally, how will the final elements come together for the completed piece? It’s important that proper preparation is made if the project is being handed off to a third party for the finish. Checking things like proper EDL (Edit Decision List) formats, and providing detailed notes for effects, the final audio track (especially if sound design is added to the mix) additional graphic elements that will not “auto-assemble”, and a rough cut on a suitable format will all help expedite a smooth finish. Also, be sure to have correct slate information that at least includes the artist, song title, total running time, Production Company, Director, Producer and Editor names, and a date. Quite often these slate guidelines are provided by the record company, and vary from label to label. Also, be sure to add a copyright (about 4 seconds with a quick fade up and out) a few seconds after the end of the video to at least safeguard your work.

I hope that the previous paragraphs, as meandering as they may be, shed at least a little light on how one editor deals with editing a music video from start-to-finish. Again, my techniques and suggestions are strictly personal. With editing, there are a dozen different ways to arrive at the same destination. I hope that you as a reader are able to take something positive away from this text. Of course, you should also work in whatever style or method you feel most comfortable. Ultimately, the video should take a viewer on a ride. It should speed up, slow down, twist and turn around the music, and leave the viewer with a conclusive ending.

Lastly, one great book that I can recommend for all types of editorial is Walter Murch’s “In the Blink of an Eye”. There is some great theory that is presented by this incredibly talented Oscar winning editor.

Most of all have fun with what you’re doing!

The process of writing music video treatments is always interesting, mainly because it IS a process. First and foremost, the video exists to serve the song. At its best, the concept and song should complement each other. We’ve seen directors who have that “one idea” they’re just chomping at the bit to do slap the same treatment onto any song that remotely jibes with it. Usually not such a great idea… treatments have to accommodate so many variables, we’ve found that starting from scratch with each song / band is often the better idea.

We try to approach videos as “mini-movies.” our roots are in narrative film, so maybe it’s just our natural inclination to want this and not think of videos as anything less than mini-movies no matter if its abstract or straight narrative… hopefully, the net result of this is a general coherence to the work. Anyhow, in our case, the writing process starts right when we get the song. we’ll listen to the track until we something strikes us…sometimes its just one listen, other times its over and over and over again. We’ll often jot down abstract thoughts and notes – whether it be a single adjective, a feeling, something technical, or a picture we see in a magazine. Anything that comes to mind is worth to writing down as it might inspire us later.

Once we get a song, it usually stays at the forefront of our thoughts no matter what we are doing – shopping, sleeping, reading, doing dishes. additionally, we’re not stephen king – we do get the occasional bout of writers block when NOTHING hits us. not sure if it’s us, or the song just not being that inspiring, or a combination, but it does happen. We just try to take a step back and get away from the office, while still always hearing the song in our heads. Sometimes we’ll go for a hike with the song on the iPod, read, look through art books, watch a good movie, or talk to our moms (who are always good sources of inspiration..).

Once something hits us, we both write separate treatments without much discussion. when we are done we’ll email each other for feedback and rewriting. Sometimes the similarities between what each of us wrote are downright spooky, but often times, we write very different details but with a core idea that’s exactly the same. When that happens, we build on what the best of both would be. The back and forth is when all the ideas really solidify and take the shape of something that serves the song and can sustain an audience (we hope) for three minutes or more. This is also typically when we start talking about how the heck we plan to execute the video if it gets chosen.

A few thoughts on writing style: descriptive is good; arrogant is bad. We have been around enough labels/label people and read enough treatments for friend’s bands, to notice this phenomenon of writing that comes across as really arrogant. We affectionately call it the “this will be the greatest video in the history of videos” principle, and would like to caution anyone against engaging in such hyperbole. You are writing for people who read thousands of treatments a year. You can’t trick them into believing your idea is the one. Moreover, the last thing you probably want is your ego to jump off the page, and not the idea. at best, its annoying and mildly insulting. at worst, you’re laughed at. We’ve seen it happen to other directors, and it’s not pretty. Best advice, just be a storyteller and tell the story.

Once the treatment is exactly where we want it to be, we work on mock-ups or animatics, which are the visual blueprint of how the video will go. truth is, no matter how great your descriptive style may be, a lot of folks really dig the added visuals to help them really get behind your idea. so knowing a little photoshop, grabbing some clip art from the web, and drafting up some rough visuals can be really worthwhile. once that’s done, we send it all to whomever has approached us – the label, manager, band members, or all three. then the waiting begins….

Anyhow, that’s our general idea of writing treatments, and for what it’s worth a few anecdotes about what we’ve learned.

In the time since our first music video (that being Alkaline Trio’s “Stupid Kid”), one thing that frequently comes up as a topic of discussion is our somewhat unconventional approach to on-set playback.

Most shows, or so it is told, hire a sound person who will create a DAT-indexed version of a band’s song. This tape usually has a timecode that will run in sync with what’s called a “smart slate”. This contraption is just like your basic Hollywood clapboard, except its got an LED screen on it that displays said timecode, and is filmed at the head of every take so that the process of syncing the footage back to the song will go smoothly later on.

That being said, after our first video we noticed a few things about the process that frustrated us. For starters, our allegedly infallible DAT tape kept losing sync with our filmed footage. Secondly, we still had to go through the process of syncing up timecode numbers, which is even less fun than syncing dailies by eye. Basically, we ended up sitting there, thinking to ourselves “we just paid a lot of money for something that hasn’t really made anything easier for us”.

Upon further reflection, we found that this whole “industry standard” system was predicated on the fact that someone else would be editing your video for you. Since that was not the case for us (and of course many others like us), we thought we’d try something a little different.

Our solution was one we’ve used ever since: we make our own playback CDs. In this day and age, most home computers with a CD burner and basic sound editing software have the ability to do it. First we’ll create the sync “beeps” you hear at the beginning of most playback tracks, a matter of generating reference tones and chopping them into something that matches the beat of the song. While it takes some trial and error, it’s not as hard as it may sound.

Next we’ll create additional copies of the song file, starting at timed intervals – say fifteen seconds further for each track – and then type up a reference sheet with the song’s lyrics and a corresponding number for what-track-begins-where. Finding a good “in” point for these versions of the song is a matter of both logic and taste. A few moments before verses and choruses begin is usually a good place to start. But honestly, we just do whatever arrangement is going to help us out the most when we’re on set.

If all of this stuff sounds like a pain, it’s worth its weight in gold for how well you know the song by the end of the process. And as the directors, we’ve found it’s very helpful to know the song about as well as the band does.

Additionally, with today’s sound editing software you can get pretty tricky and do some really high end stuff on the cheap. For example, when you want a shot to be in slow motion but the band’s performance to remain in sync, you can use the computer to make a special playback track to assist you. Basically, if you speed up the song to 2x normal (making sure to bend the pitch down so no one sounds like a chipmunk), and then you shoot at 2x normal (48 frames per second), when you transfer your dailies you’ll find you’ve got a cool, dreamy slow motion shot with the band perfectly in sync. We once shot a whole show like this. When we showed the crew the finished video, no one recognized the song, which for them was playing at its correct speed for the first time.

You can also do this whole process in reverse to get the camera moving faster than any human could move. Just slow the song and the camera down accordingly. Yeah, there’s a little number crunching involved here. Yeah, it has the capacity to make your brain hurt after a while. But how great is it to find out that, contrary to millions of whining high school students, there IS a practical application for math and trigonometry?

From there, it’s pretty self-explanatory. Rent a standard playback / PA system from a sound house, one that’s big enough to fill the space you’re shooting in and can effectively drown out very basic big rock drums. Then you hook the thing up to a CD player, and have someone – literally anyone – near the thing to press play, per the handy dandy lyric reference sheet you’ve got in your pocket right next to your shot list. Finally, make sure your earplugs are in. We are dead serious when we say this. We know a lot of people who refuse to wear them; at the rate they are going, they really won’t need them in a few years because they’ll be deaf. Not worth it one bit.

The one thing our playback system does not afford, as discussed above, is the ability to automatically sync your dailies when you are editing. But what may seem at first like a burden really becomes an added, extremely helpful step in editing. Syncing the dailies ourselves familiarizes us with the footage we’ve shot, and serves as a helpful “big picture” snapshot of the entire shoot before we get down to the microscopic process of piecing the whole thing together.

And did we mention it saves a substantial little chunk of money?

Director Nigel Dick Discusses Writing A Successful Music Video Treatment. A veteran of more than 240 music videos, 18 documentaries and feature films, two MTV awards, 2 Billboard awards, three MVPA awards, one Brit award and a Cable Ace award. His videos have earned 20 additional MTV award nominations, along with a Grammy. He shares his experience on writing a successful music video treatment.

Interview With Director Nigel Dick

MVW: Can you break down the process of how to write a treatment?

ND: I think the truth of it is that for everybody, the process of writing is different. People work in different ways. Certainly for myself, I’ve learned different techniques over the years. Every morning you get up and look at the blank wall, and you play a record and you have to come up with an idea, so what works for you one week won’t work for you another week.

Sometimes you’re just lucky and you have a pure piece of inspiration. And then after a while, when you’re working on a regular basis, that endless font of inspiration dries up. You have to find techniques and methods of stocking inspiration. I think it’s like anything creative; whether you’re a painter or a songwriter or whatever it is, or a journalist or a novelist. Initially you’re just wandering around one day and you have this great idea, but then you suddenly find yourself having to do it for a living, and it reaches a whole new level.

So I have learned over the years a whole bunch of techniques to sort of come up with ideas. One is, what I pretty much always do, is I break the song down. I make sure I have the lyrics, I type out the lyrics, I put in all the bars breaks, I figure out how long it is, how long the verses and chorus are, so I actually have some kind of structure. I break the song up into its various acts, if you like, the same way if you’re analyzing a screenplay you figure it has three acts, or if you’re analyzing a symphony and you’re trying to write about it, you realize it has three movements. So with a song, when I’m breaking it down to write a treatment, I figure it’s got two verses, three choruses, a middle eight, and a sixteen-bar solo or something. And that gives me an idea of what I need to fill in the holes.

And also, for myself, a thing that I find useful, is that it helps to try describe and visually to the audience how the song is broken down. So you’re not just having somebody standing in front of a wall just singing the whole song. You’re actually helping them to have some kind of journey however simple or elementary it may be, it’s actually reflecting the structure of the music, whichI think is quite important, well, it is for me anyway. And then from there there’s a whole number of gags that I use. Sometimes I just start flipping through magazines, and perhaps I’ll find one picture that inspires me. I mean, like when I did the Believe video for Cher two years ago, I was pitching ideas to her and we weren’t getting anywhere, so I went round to her house with about 50 pictures I’d ripped out of magazines and I said to her, “Which of these pictures inspires you?” And she picked a picture of two girls in a disco and she said, “That feels like what this video should look like. I feel there should be a story around that.” And so I was able to come up with a story based on two girls going out to a club for the night and then an just idea grew from it. And actually the video bears no relation to the picture anymore, but I was able to use that picture as sort of a bouncing point for the way the girls looked, what they were going to do, the way it would start. You know, you could look at the picture now and it wouldn’t relate to the video, but it was very inspiring.

Perhaps I’m driving around in my car and I’ll see a billboard for something and I go, “Ooh, that’s it…” A number of years ago trying to write a treatment for a band called To Die For, and I spent a week trying to come up with an idea and then I saw an image for some chewing gum or something. There was somebody bungee jumping and I went, “Ooh, that’s the idea right there!” And you know it was written in 10 minutes.

It’s really useful when an artist has an idea and they say, “I want to something like this.” Though from some perspectives the idea may suck, big time, but the fact that the artist has some kind of vision, however misplaced it may be, it gives you a sort of direction to start in, even if it’s a way of saying, “Well I’m definitely not going to go down that road…” The minute you start closing avenues off, it starts revealing avenues you can go down.

An analogy that I would use is that when I was trained to be an architect, we would always complain to our tutor that when we were given buildings to design they would send us off into the city where we lived and they would show us a piece of land and say, “You’ve got to build a hospital on this piece of land, bearing in mind that you can’t build more than three stories high and that that oak tree has to stay there.” And we would always complain because we would say, “That doesn’t allow us a situation where we can give full reign to our creative juices. If you give us a square plot of land without planning restrictions, we’ll come up with a much better building.” And he said, “Well, frankly I disagree. There’s two big reasons why: Firstly life isn’t like that. You’ll never get a perfectly flat piece of land with no planning restrictions. And secondly, if you do have a piece of land like that, chances are you’ll come up with the most boring building you’ve ever built.” So the restrictions give you that.

[Often it will go like this:] “I need to have my video shot next Thursday at this airport because I’m on the way between A and C and you’ve got to shoot me at point B.” Initially it may seem to be a restriction but eventually it can become a source of some inspiration for you. So you have to allow that to be useful to you.

Sometimes I just sit… Something I’ve been doing a lot recently is I just start playing the song over and over again, and I sit at my computer and I just mentally dribble. I just start typing any piece of drivel that comes into my head and then suddenly something will come out. I read in a book about creative writing that when you wake up in the morning, the first thing you should do before you make a cup of coffee or anything is sit down and write for an hour and just write everything inside your brain and just get rid of that and then you can truly start creatively writing because you’ve dispelled all the crap inside your brain. So in the same way, though if I’m writing for an hour I usually give up and go and do something else for a while, I sit down and just sort of… mental diarrhea if you like, until something useable comes out. And very often I have parts of an idea, I just have an image… you just have one little idea, and then as you’re writing it out you get this wonderful resolution and you think, “Aha! You know, that’s gonna make it really come together in the end.”

Like in… though it didn’t come out the way I wanted it to because the band changed the ending, but, in the last Fuel video I did, I just suddenly thought… I was looking at the lyrics and I thought, “It would be great if Brett was talking to a shrink,” and of course he’s talking about a girl so you know the usual thing is that a guy is talking about a girl he’s having a scene with, and then I thought, “It would be great if we could create the impression that Brett was talking about a woman who was part of his own psyche.” And I think that in the version which nobody ever got to see it was much more successful about the fact that you understood that he was talking about somebody who was in his own head.

MVW: What about the actual formatting of the treatment? Are there any ticks of the trade that you can talk about?

ND: There are no tricks of the trade; it’s all bullsh.. . Hopefully you have a vision in your mind’s eye of what it looks like, and that’s why you’re employed, because you have a vision and you’re going to create a look for it. But the truth is that one’s vision comes in the process of finding the location and getting the clothes… It’s such a collaborative process. It’s not like making a movie where you get months to plan it and you have chances to design costumes. You know you have to pull it together in three or four days so you have to take what K-Mart has got, or what you can beg from Hugo Boss or Prada or whatever it is.

So, basically when you write the treatment you tell lies about how lead singer is going to look fantastic…
When you’re talking to the people in the beginning… they say, “The problem that we’ve had with this band so far is that we’ve sold some great videos, we’ve sold lots of records, but what we need to do now is to establish them as a rock band.” So when you write the treatment, you write it as, “Make them to look like a rock band.” You tell people what they want to hear. I mean apart from massaging their ego and their self- interest to get yourself a job, more hopefully in the way you’re writing the treatment you’re saying, “I understand what it is you want to get from this video and believe me, I’m going to deliver it. People want to hear what they want to hear, and when you’re a marketing man, a manager, a lead singer, a guitar player or whoever you are, you have a vision for your group that you’re keeping going no matter who the director is, and so you want to hear that the artist is going to look great. Nobody is going to buy a treatment where you say, “Well, actually, the band is going to look like sh.. but it’s going to be a brilliant video.” Nobody’s going to buy into that.

MVW: Do you stick to a certain format with the treatments that you write?

ND: I do, but I know other people who write treatments who are notoriously vague about some things. About 5 percent of the time I’m too busy and I have to get somebody else to write a treatment for me and sometimes I’ll read the treatment and I haven’t the faintest clue as to what is going on. I mean, they want to charge a fortune and they send me a page and it’s like, “What the f… is going on in this treatment? I haven’t got the faintest clue what is going on? And maybe I’ve given them the germ of an idea and in frustration I take three really interesting creative lines that they’ve put in there and then I just sit down and I do the work myself and I flesh it out. I mean it personally astonishes me sometimes the treatments which I’ve seen that other people have got work on .

MVW: Do you find that sometimes the actual written treatment is kind of like a résumé in that until you actually meet with the commissioner and tell them exactly what you want to do, that’s where its sold?

ND: Unfortunately it’s not that sophisticated a process. The A&R guy or the chief of marketing comes down from their office and says, “We need to make a video for the next single, it has to be at MTV in four weeks, I’m gonna spend 300,000 bucks, get me some treatments by Friday.” And they ring up their favorite people or the usual suspects or whatever it is and I’m sitting here working away and the phone rings and my company says to me, “We’ve got some music for you, we’re sending it over, we need a treatment by tomorrow morning.” And you’re writing along with 10 other people. And so you’re into an essay writing contest. You write it for free of course, you drop everything else you’re doing, you cancel the date you had that night, whatever it is, and you write the treatment and send it in and if you’re lucky they ring you back and they say, “We really liked your idea but there’s a couple of things we’d like to change.” And you change them and then you get the gig and then you go off and shoot it.

MVW: How much do your videos vary from the treatment?

ND: In my case I would say that 90 percent of the time the video is frighteningly like the treatment. Chances are that if it’s different it’s because somebody on the label side has asked me to change things on the day, or the sun didn’t shine and it rained and we had to go inside, or some practical consideration got in the way. But I feel that I’ve sold somebody a bill of goods and once they’ve decided to buy it — and believe me that’s buying it with an enormous amount of money — it’s my business and my responsibility to deliver that. Should they then see it and not like it, then that’s a problem, and unfortunately that occasionally happens, but I take my job very seriously and I feel that if you come to me and you give me a quarter of a million dollars, and you want me to build you a house which is meant to provide you with shelter and comfort and give you a beautiful view of the lake at the bottom of your plot of land, then that’s what you want. You don’t want a helicopter pad. Whatever I want in my life, you could give two f…s. You need a house you can live in, and it’s my duty to supply that. And again to go to my architectural training, there was a phrase I was taught which is, “Your job as an architect is to give the client not what he wants, but what he needs and didn’t know that he wanted.

MVW: If you’re not an established name and you’re trying to become a director, is there anything you should do to make that step toward getting your treatment read?

ND: You have to rely on enthusiasm and luck. If there was a perfect way to write a treatment, as in: “This is going to get you a gig every time…” There is no perfect way. You can’t please all the people all the time. I think that much of our job is to try and give people what they want, but sometimes you have just have to go with an idea and say, F… it. I’m prepared to lose the job.” It’s a truism that to prepare to succeed, you have to be prepared to fail spectacularly. So sometimes though I’ve been given a brief to write on a job that I really, really want badly, you know, because I really want to work with that artist, or I haven’t worked for a while and I need to pay the rent of whatever it is, I will gamble quite heavily and come up with an idea that is quite unusual or extreme because I just think it’s a great idea and I need to get it out of my system. And I actually feel very happy about doing that, even though professionally it may be not the wisest thing to do, but I feel that by trying to second guess what the labels say they want and all the rest of it, inevitably you’ll fall between two stools and you’ll compromise both the job and whatever it is you’re trying to create.

And to direct you have to be a director… you can’t have eight people directing something. A camel is a horse designed by committee. And to get a pure thoroughbred, one person just has to say, “This is how it is going to look.” So to go back to your question about what a young director ought to do to write that perfect treatment, is they just have to embrace an idea and be prepared to fail. If you try to write the perfect treatment, which is trying to answer everything perfectly and do the best job and all the rest of it, inevitably you will somehow compromise what it is you see as your idea.

I think that in creative circles innocence is a wonderful thing. I mean, I look back at the work I did at the beginning of my career, when I didn’t know the faintest thing about video making, and I would just embark upon an idea completely innocent of the problems I was going to encounter and I would just go and do it. Nowadays I start thinking about an idea and I go, “Well, you can’t do that. You can’t do that. You can’t do that.”

A couple of years ago I was working in this company and they rang me up and they said, “There’s this band in Florida and they want to make a video for 50,000 bucks,” you know, and I hadn’t made a $50,000 video for a number of years and I said all right, you know, and I listened to the record and I thought it was really interesting and really new. And they said, “Can you speak to the lead singer?” And I said, sure, because he’s got this idea. So I rang him up and we had a chat on the phone and he said, “I want to do this video in my house and each member of the band is gonna be in a different room and there’s gonna be a guy outside mowing the lawn…” and all this kind of stuff and I’m going, “Well, hold on a minute you can’t do all that in a day,” because in my experience, because unfortunately of the place I’ve reached in my career, 20 trucks turn up and then everybody wants the band’s makeup artists and you’re into a two-day shoot and all this kind of stuff. Well, obviously the guy thought, Bollocks to this, I don’t like what this English guy is saying.” And he put the phone down and he went and did it himself. Well it was Fred Durst, for a Limp Bizkit video. I think there’s a tremendous lesson there. You know he just said, “Fine. F… it. He doesn’t like my idea, well, I do, so I’m gonna do it.” He had a vision and he went with it, and more power to him. I think young directors should do the same. Inevitably, eventually they will start banging their heads against trying to shoot a movie or a video somewhere and the practicalities of the trade get in the way. As I say, innocence is a wonderful thing. My biggest word of advice is don’t make it too short or too long.

MVW: When you were starting out, was there any style that you followed, or any books that you read, or did you just say, “Okay, I’m gonna just write the treatment, I know I have to have these elements in it,” and then you just started submitting them?

ND: Yeah, that’s what I did. To be completely honest I don’t read many other people’s treatments because in a way I feel it’s kind of unprofessional, I can’t really say why, which probably shows I’ve got my own head stuck up my ass, but, you know, I don’t need to be stealing Dave Meyers ideas… Everybody has their own process, and they need to preserve that and it’s none of my business how they do their work even if there is something I could learn from it potentially. I’ve just tried to learn a process that works for me and, you know, I’m still getting gigs. It appears to be working. Nobody’s telling me that it’s not working.

I mean, occasionally my rep will ring me up and go, “Nigel, the last five treatments you’ve written sucked. And you go, “Really?” And he goes, “Yup. I think they’re really bad.” And you put the phone down and you think, “Wanker. He didn’t get it.” And then about a week later you go, “Oh, I suppose he’s got a point. I’ve got to get excited about this again. And you go into a little room and you slap yourself around a bit and you get out the cat-o’-nine tails and you start whipping yourself or doing whatever it is you need to do and then you come back out and you attack it with a renewed vigor. I think the same is true for basketball players, politicians, writers, actors, you know, whatever it is. It’s easy doing it for a while, but doing it for a long while takes an enormous amount of energy so that you don’t get stale and so that you don’t become complacent. You know, one of the boring old blokes who goes, “Young whippersnapper! He doesn’t understand! In my day…” Especially in music videos. I can’t give a sh.. about that because the whole point of it is that it’s a new, expanding, constantly changing process. And you ignore that at your peril.

History…

I started up a production company while still in film school with fellow director Chris Milk and three other directors. Our company was called Spoon Fed Films, and we were able to maintain our business for about six years in San Francisco. Our Clients included HP, Wadsworth Publishing, Round Table Pizza, 3DO, Fat Wreck Chords and many independent producers, record labels and bands. Our projects ranged from talking-head corporate videos to animated short films, music videos and commercials.

We had some serious ups and downs, and learned the hard way that running a real business can be pretty difficult. Here’s what I would’ve done differently, in no particular order.

The Financial Aspect

If someone is going to put up money to start a company, say, if you have a few partners, get IN WRITING exactly what the money is: a loan an investment or whatever. No matter how good a friend someone is, this will come back to haunt you if the company were to dissolve. Make sure everything is clearly spelled out as to the terms of the loan or investment so no one is confused at the end.

Watch your spending! Keep things simple at first and only upgrade equipment and office facilities when it’s totally reasonable to do so (see the paper work section below regarding bookkeeping).

The Paper Work

Do plenty of research on the type of business you want to be; LLC, LLP, Corporation (Inc.) or Sole Proprietor. There are too many financial and tax issues to talk about here, but here’s a few resources that can help:

http://www.eqmone.com/startup.htm

http://www.dgs.ca.gpv

Stay up to date on all paper work, taxes, fees and certificates. Make sure at least ONE person totally understands all the paper work and tax issues. There’s nothing worse than five guys sitting around on April 14th without a clue as to how to issue a stack of 1099-Misc forms to a bunch of independent contractors…ugh.

A detail oriented bookkeeper is a must. Find someone that can come in once a week to go over invoices and paper work and understands tax issues regarding production companies. Sit down with this person when they come in and watch what they do, ask questions and be aware of what their job entails.

Have a plan for dissolution. I can’t stress this enough!! Make a solid plan that you can refer to if the company is dissolved. Make sure it includes everything from the $40K Digibeta deck to the throw rug in the bathroom. Seriously, get all of this stuff out of the way at the beginning so there’s no questions at the end. Think of it as a script or a treatment for the business that details everything that will happen, should the plan go sour. Speaking of plans, have a formal and realistic business plan. Try this link for help in creating a business plan:

http://www.businesstown.com/planning/creating.asp

Know Your Partners

It’s hard to really know what someone’s intentions are, but if you’re going to have partners, make sure everyone is on the same page. Most importantly, make sure everyone has the same work ethic. Running a small production company takes serious commitment, and if one person is bearing the brunt of the work, things will go sour FAST. Split up the day-to-day operations among the partners and follow up on everyone’s progress. Define, early on, what everyone’s rolls should be in the company and on a project by project basis.

Bringing In Work & Return Clients

Find clients and make them happy so they’ll keep coming back. Be involved with all the projects that come through the door and keep them moving forward. Having a ‘rep’ of sorts is important; someone who does nothing but hustle up work, making phone calls, sending out demo reels, etc. At first, this will be you and your partners. But pass it along to someone else when the work starts coming in. Offer someone a percentage of a project to do this work for you, or, if you can afford it, pay them a salary. Keep THEM happy and excited about the company and the projects as well. If a partner is more interested in being a producer, they would be the perfect candidate for hustling up some work.

Though our company survived longer than many start ups do, there are many things I would’ve done differently to keep it alive much longer. Treat the business like a production; if you’re pre-production was done well, then there will be less un-foreseen catastrophes in the long run. Make sure everyone knows the plan for the business and the dissolution, should it come to that. Good luck.

As a cinematographer, I have on more than one occasion come across a director or producer who has said to me, “that technical stuff is not my thing”.  (Very painful since I happen to think that my choice of cameras and lenses is very artful!)  If that hits home, you might not want to read on.  For the brave, foolhardy, or just plain enlightened amongst you, read on – and to quote Bill Cosby – “…if you’re not careful, you might learn something before it’s done”.

In February of 2004, I had the opportunity to shoot a low-budget music video for Monzelle Dozier – a talented and up-and-coming music video director.  Our early conversations included talks about what format to shoot and what the benefits and disadvantages of each would be. As schedules and a final budget solidified, the right tool for the project was the Panasonic SDX900.

In The Beginning

In the summer of 2003, Panasonic released a professional, standard definition DVCPRO50 camera: the SDX900.  The premise of its design was to take the lessons learned from the VariCam (Panasonic’s 24p high definition camera) and the DVX100 (Panasonic’s 24p standard definition miniDV camera).  The result is a camera with many controls and options for developing a look in camera, the aesthetic quality of shooting 24 fps with progressive image capture, and image data on par with Digital Betacam quality while being able to capture and edit that footage on a home computer system via IEEE 1394 (or FireWire).  Allow me to geek out here: the camera sports three 520,000 pixel, 2/3″ progressive scanning CCD imagers, switchable 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios, records both DVCPRO50 (50Mbps, 4:2:2 color space, 3.3:1 compression, and 33 minute load) and DVCPRO (25Mbps, 4:1:1 color space, 5:1 compression, and 66 minute load), an impressive 12-bit DSP (digital signal processor), and records in 24p (advanced and standard pull-down), 30p and 60i.  In addition to that, the camera can record time-lapse footage with the use of the Pre-Recording Board option and can output a 10-bit signal with the optional SDI board – useful if you’re doing critical compositing work.

From a cinematographer’s standpoint, this camera is a huge step forward from the limitations of miniDV on one hand and the cost prohibitive nature often associated with high definition or film on the other.  For me the most critical advantages of the camera from an image aesthetic and practical view point are: 24 progressive image capture, twice the image data as miniDV, image control by way of a six-pole matrix and 12-pole color correction, and a reasonable rental cost for productions with a tight budget.

24p

Much as been said and written about 24p cameras in the last three years, but for those of you new to it, here’s a very simple explanation of what it means.  Traditionally, video captures images at 30 frames-per-second (fps) while film cameras capture at 24 fps. The “24″ in 24p refers to the frame rate of 24 fps and the “p” refers to progressive image capture, that is, it captures the whole image, all at once, and records that image to tape.

It’s important to be clear when you speak about 24p since you can record in 24p on both standard definition and high definition cameras.  The SDX900 captures 24 progressive frames and is standard definition.  It is in my opinion the best imaging, standard definition camera on the market today.  What you get when shooting with this camera are images with temporal movement similar to what you would get with a film camera.  Many might call this a “film look” and I suppose in some ways it is.  The quality of the image is softer (I’m not speaking about focus here), more fluid motion that’s not as “newsy” or “live” as 30 fps video.  Some of you might ask, why spend the money on this camera when I can get 24p from a miniDV camera, like the DVX100.  Yes, you can use the DVX100.  It’s also a great camera but what you save comes with a cost – image quality.

Image Data

The Panasonic DVX100 is a miniDV camera (or often referred to as DV25) and the only other standard definition camera that offers true 24p as of this writing.  The “25″ refers to the data rate of the camera – in this case 25 Megabits per second.  Panasonic’s SDX900 is a DVCPRO50/25 camera and records to tape twice as much information.  (Incidentally, the SDX900 can also record DV25 if for some reason you needed to.)  What does this doubling of data rate mean to you.  If you’ve ever tried to do serious color correction on miniDV or tried to key out a blue/green screen you’ve probably had a hard time doing it.  The added picture data means there’s more color information to manipulate and when you consider the low compression rate of 3.3:1 (compared to 5:1 on miniDV) you end up with an image that’s can key easily, be manipulated to greater extremes, and solid color areas, especially black, reveals very little-to-no compression artifacts.

Image creation

Now let’s say you don’t want to do too much image manipulation in post.  With a skilled director of photography or digital image technician, you can set-up some great looks in camera by creatively using filters, white-balance, gain, shutter speed, and the matrix and/or color correction features of the camera.  For the Stone & Ivy music video, I spent several hours the night before setting up the camera for my use and working on the “look”.  For the most part we used two looks: a green/cyan look for the mannequin factory and a slightly desaturated and higher contrast image for the rest.  For the green/cyan look, I started by white balancing to a 1/2 minus green gel over the gray card.  This gave me the green I wanted.  Then I went into the controls and changed the gamma, pedestal, and knee.  What I wanted is lots of highlight information with slightly crushed blacks and med-tones.  For the other look, I pulled back the saturation of the colors and only crushed the blacks a bit.  We also shot with a 1/250 shutter and for one of the performance shots we used 1/1000.  Then each setup was saved to a SD memory card for recall while on set.

The set-up menus on the camera are extensive and numerous.  You can get lost if you don’t know what your doing, so make sure you leave that work to a qualified operator or digital image technician (or engineer).  The menus include such items as gamma, knee, pedestal, detail, matrix and color correction, system and viewfinder settings, VTR operation, maintenance, etc.  In the manual, one-fourth of the book is devoted to just the menus.  You can totally goof the camera if you’re just playing around, but take heart, there’s a reset to go back to factory settings if that happens – you just have to find it!

The matrix and color correction features allow you to tweak the colors to your heart’s delight.  Without getting too technical, you adjust the matrix to get your colors into the ballpark and then you can adjust the color correction to fine-tune.  It’s neat to watch because you can affect a specific color and change just that color, for example, change a specific hue of blue to green.  To be honest, though, unless you’ve got time it can be hard to do on-set.  Although on the last music video I did manage to take time to darken just the reds on one set-up.

The camera offers two “Film-Like” options.  These are not to be confused with the plug-ins available for editing and compositing programs.  These “Film-Like” options control how the camera responds to highlights by gradually rolling off to white, creating a smooth image tonality.

And when it’s all been set the way you like it, you can save the settings to a SD memory card for switching back-and-fourth during the show or for future recall.

Rental Costs

As much as I’d love to only shoot film for every project, I’m aware of my responsibility to the budget and the need to finish a project with the maximum quality and production value.  Here is where this camera might be of help to many productions that have some money but not enough to shoot on a higher-end medium.  From my recent experiences, the camera package rental starts at about $700 per day (usually on a three-day week).  What you can expect to get is the camera and a mid-range lens, some batteries, a tripod and fluid head, and maybe a 4×5 matte box.  If you spend a little more – say $1500 – you can expect to get the package as mentioned above, a couple of high definition lenses, a gear head, short and tall tripod and hi-hat, an on board monitor and a high-resolution 16:9/4:3 switchable field monitor.  Deals can always be made if you just ask, but take note, this camera goes out often.

Final Thoughts

I think it goes without saying that I’m a huge fan of this camera and have been since the first time I saw it at NAB.  Having used it on commercials and now a music video, my fondness for the camera has only grown and I plan on using it for a narrative feature later this year.  I love the look I can get from the camera and the image quality and image control that this camera offers over using miniDV goes without saying.

In addition to the features already mentioned, I also like the “digital zoom” feature.  For those of you who have used a film camera with an image doubler (used for checking critical focus), this camera has a digital zoom that doubles the size of the image.  It’s mostly used for newsgathering, but I’ve used it to also check critical focus.  The camera also offers two video outs that can be set up to send time-code information to a script-supervisor or someone logging the tapes on set and another that is clean of onscreen information that can be used for the “client feed”.

If you can’t get a waveform monitor for the shoot, the camera also offers two zebra settings and a “spotmeter-like” function called Y Get On.  I used this feature many times to get the brightness (or luminance values) of whatever you aim the crosshairs at.  You can use it to make sure that a highlight on a person’s head aren’t too bright or that the levels on a background are consistent.  It’s a center-weighted metering system similar to the old 16mm Arriflex cameras.

In closing, for a music video with only a grand or so, you might still be better served shooting with a miniDV camera and investing the balance on art, wardrobe or lighting.  But for productions with enough of a budget to go toward a camera rental (but not enough for high def or film), I can’t recommend this camera enough.  The camera alone won’t make great images (no one should be that naive), but in the right hands, you can achieve some impressive images, do some sophisticated compositing or just deliver a final project that’s of the highest quality a standard definition workflow can deliver.

# # #

Project Specifications (Stone & Ivy “Blinders” music video):

Director: Monzelle Dozier
Production Coordinator: Aaron Rattner
Director of Photography: Eric Gustavo Petersen
1st Camera Assistant: Koji Kojima
Chief Lighting Technician: R. Scott Marvin
Key Grip: Teruhisa Yoshida

CAMERA (Moviola – Hollywood, CA):
Panasonic SDX900 (recording on DVCPRO50 – personal settings)
Canon 9X5.5 HD Lens with extender (Mostly used)
Canon 15x 8mm SD Lens with extender
Sony Monitor (16×9)

Camera Support (Plus 8 Digital – Burbank, CA)
Arri Gear Head 2
Ronford Standard Tripod

Dolly
Chapman Leonard Super Pee Wee
36″ Slider Plate

Grip & Electric (Wooden Nickel – Burbank, CA)
2-ton grip/electric package

For more information, visit:

Moviola

2-Pop Forum – Panasonic SDX900

Eric Gustavo Petersen

After working in the music industry and he enrolled in the Cinema program at Los Angeles City College where he studied Cinematography with Bill Dill, A.S.C., and later he served as Dill’s teaching assistant at the American Film Institute. Greene gained valuable set experience working as an electrician and assistant cameraman on various independent productions and which led to his working on crews for acclaimed Directors of Photography Daniel C. Pearl and Malik Hassan Sayeed, both of whom encouraged and supported him in pursuing his goal of becoming a cinematographer.

Greene’s second feature as a DP “Sweet Oranges,” is now available on DVD via Tri-Destined Media Entertainment.

“There is no more worthy, more glorious or more potent work, than to work with light.” - Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Similar to the problems one encounters when starting to learn a new language; our first attempts at expressing ourselves through light may seem quite awkward and fall far short of our initial expectations. In this article, we’ll discuss several of the mistakes people make when they begin lighting and how to avoid them on your next project.

This article is by no means meant to be comprehensive, nor should it be as the final word on the matter.

1) Failing to properly set the Key Light

The “key light” or ‘key” is the main or primary light on a subject. It is the most important light source affecting the exposure of the shot and it establishes the directionality and source motivation for the lighting and the placement of shadows. Where we place our key light affects the shape, form and definition of our subject’s face. In short, it establishes the overall mood of the scene. Because actors move in music videos, commercials and films a number of lights may be used to establish the key light source, but in order to maintain the overall motivation of our lighting we place them in such a way to make it appear as if they are all coming from a single direction.

The most natural key light position is viewed as 45 degrees above and to one side of a subject. This position throws the shadow of the nose across the opposite side of the face leaving a patch of light, commonly known as the “Rembrandt patch”, named after the famous Dutch painter who lived in the 17th Century. For the most part this angle places light in both of the actor’s eyes and gives nice shape to the nose, lips, chin and cheeks. On music videos, where the major concern is making the star look beautiful, the key is usually a very soft light, placed at camera level (or slightly above) in front of the actor, minimizing facial blemishes, lines or marks.

But are these the only two positions for setting your key for your subjects? Should you follow them blindly? What if the subject has a very wide face, or a chin that sags? How about if they have a larger than average nose, deep sunken eyes, or has a hairstyle that would make Bob Marley proud?

Different faces demand different lighting positions. You’ll have to study the face of the individual and test various lighting positions to determine where to set your key so it comes from the direction that will best serve the features of that person’s particular face and/or the mood you are trying to create. “If you can light a face, you can light anything” – Roger Deakins, A.S.C. B.S.C (“Shawshank Redemption”, “House of Sand and Fog”)

The final placement of the key might be from high overhead and high to the side, from three quarters back, behind them, or even from below.

Darius Khondji, A.S.C., A.F.C. (“Se7en,” “City of Lost Children”, Madonna’s “Frozen”) was quoted as saying, “the direction of the light counts more with me that its hardness or softness” This emphasizes how important the placement of the key and the angle of the light becomes in helping us to light the subject’s face, and how much of that face we chose to reveal.

2) Viewing three-point lighting as a rule, instead of a starting point.

In the glamour era of Hollywood, camera men adhered strictly to the rules of three-point lighting: a hard key light place 45 degrees above and to the side of an actor creating the “Rembrandt patch.” Opposite side of the key, and the from the direction of camera the Fill light, softer and diffused to reduce the shadow created by the key, and backlight which came from above and behind the actor shining upon their head and shoulders.

The three-point lighting style is still taught today in film schools and lighting workshops. Like many other aspects of filmmaking, it gives the beginner a starting point, a foundation of knowledge to build upon. But as you light for your videos, commercials and films you should realize that you are in no way chained to this technique. You don’t have to follow it blindly.

You can light a scene with a single lighting source. You can choose to expose a scene so you will need little or no fill light. You may use several different sources as fill, and place them in positions other than opposite the key. You can create separation in scene by use of not only by using color, but also by lighting the planes of the foreground, middle and background to different levels of brightness.

3) “ If you want it to look dark, you have to photograph it in the dark”

The common mistake that people make is thinking that a dark scene needs to be shot at low light levels. “It doesn’t have to look dark to photograph dark” – is a something Bill Dill, A.S.C used to say repeatedly to his students. Some cinematographers like to use very big lighting units and a great deal of light, and still others use small lighting units and a small amount of light. But here’s the thing. The light levels have little to do with it; more importantly its how they chose to EXPOSE the scene’s brightness range so that it would fit the curve of the film they were using that really matters. Understanding this concept will allow a cinematographer to expose a low light scene to look bright and over lit, and to make daylight look like moonlight.

If you’re using a digital camera to shoot, don’t believe the myth that you don’t need to use lights. You’ll need to raise the light levels in the scene so you’ll be able to shoot at 0 db at a wide aperture. What you don’t want to do is boost the gain on the camera, which results in added noise. Use a monitor on set and it’s WYSIWYG.

4) Using Soft light, but not cleaning up the spill

Soft light sources are used on music videos to create broad, even areas of light. They’re the commonly used to light faces. Let’s face it; most of us love soft light. It’s beautiful. And there are so many ways to make light soft. You can bounce it off a wall or piece of bead board, foam core, show card, griffolyn, or by sending the light through various forms of diffusion material like muslin, grid cloth. You can use bulbs of various wattages inside different size China Balls and attach them to dimmers. Commercially available units like Chimera can be placed on Fresnel, Par, and open face lights to give off soft light. You can even build your own homemade soft box. On the film, “Frida”, DP Rodrigo Prieto, A.S.C., A.M.C. had his gaffer Benito Aguilar make custom soft boxes they dubbed “Sputniks” to fit over their 2K juniors and open face lights.

The larger the source, and closer the source to the subject, the softer the light becomes. But the softer the light, the harder it is to control, you’ll need large flags to control the light at the source and keep it from spilling all over the place. We don’t want light all over the frame, we want to use it to direct the viewer’s eyes to what we feel is important.

The thing to remember when controlling these soft sources is that all flags and scrims used to control the light must be positioned in FRONT of the diffusion frames and NOT between the lamp and screen. This is because the frame of diffusion or bounce board becomes the source of light for the scene. Soft Egg Crates by Light Tools are very popular tools in controlling soft light. They come in various sizes and can be attach to the front of your existing lights, or rigged on butterfly and overhead frames. It’s amazing the number of ways that a talented grip can rig duvetyn to flag off the spill from lights

5) Being Afraid of “Hard Light”

Hard light from a source such as the noon Sun or a focused Fresnel gives light that is directional and casts a sharp, clearly defined shadow. When hard light is used to illuminate a face, imperfections in the skin can stand out.

This is not to say you should avoid using “hard light” on a face, because if you overexpose the hard light on a face the look can be quite unique and beautiful. Veteran music video and feature film Cinematographer Ericson Core (“The Fast and the Furious” and “Payback”) loves to light with hard light. He used it effectively to light the sets and buildings in the night exteriors of “Daredevil” and to bring out the texture of the character’s leather costume.

Hard light needs to be controlled and requires the use of multiple flags, nets and other light modifiers to control and shape the light falling on the scene. You’ll also need to place your lighting units the proper distance from your subject and use some form of light diffusion like Hampshire Frost to help take the edge off.

The late, great cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth, A.S.C. combined soft frontal lighting with hard backlight to great effect in the film “Blade Runner” which has influenced dozens of cinematographers working in music videos, commercials and features.

6) Too Much Light on Night Exteriors

“…nothing can ruin the atmosphere as easily as too much light”- Sven Nykvist A.S.C.

Unless the story is set at the 50 yard line of a Monday Night Football Game, you won’t want it to light it to look like that. The question to consider is “what does night look like to you? How does it relate to the mood of story? It’s okay to allow let things go drop off by several stop down to complete blackness. For reference watch any night scene in a David Fincher movie.

7) Lighting with Super Saturated Color Gels

Another thing to watch out for is the using heavy saturated color gels on your lights. Red is probably the worst offender. It’s really an exciting color but on film it loses resolution and looks soft. Red is difficult for your meter to read and films are less sensitive to the color, so if it’s the only color you’re using in the scene you’ll need to overexpose it about by 2-3 stops.

On DV, red’s noisy frequency makes it hard to transmit cleanly and the color bleeds and smears when transferred. Try to avoid it.

8) Double Shadows

A double nose shadow on the actor’s face is unflattering and distracting. It comes as a result of the key and fill light being set at the same exact angle, (usually 45 degrees to the side of the actor) and at the same intensity.

It has been said that each time you add another light you create another problem. And yet no matter how many lights you use to light an actor, that actor should still only cast one shadow. The chance of even seeing the cast of a single shadow from an actor can be reduced by using soft light sources, or flagging hard sources and by avoiding staging scenes next to plain white walls.

9) Allowing a practical lamp to cast it’s own shadow

If the only light in the room is supposed to come from the practical lamps then what is casting the shadow of the lamps on the wall? Since a light in the real world shouldn’t cast it’s own shadow, this immediately tells the viewer that the source illuminating the scene is artificial. You’ll need to balance your lights to match the direction of the practical lamps and use flags and nets control the spill.

10) Forgetting that your lighting is affected by other variables

The art of lighting extends far beyond turning on a few lights. You have to understand the effect of set design, location, costume, time of day, placement of the action, filters, the film stock, the lab and the colorist contribute toward making the image.

One of my favorite cinematographers told me, “ I can light a set better with a bucket of black paint.” Now while he admitted to that being a slight exaggeration, his point was very clear. If the walls and backgrounds of your set or location are lighter than the skin tones of your actors then they will always seem darker by comparison.

Try to keep the walls down in value by at least 25% in relation to your actors or you spend too much time trying to take light off the wall. The same thing applies to doors, and dark skin toned actors in white t-shirts standing against walls.

Robert Richardson, A.S.C. (“Kill Bill” “J.F.K” “Snow Falling on Cedars”) observed “For me the [color] timer and the lab are two most important choices for a director of photography”. Only by shooting a variety of tests will you learn about the film negative’s ability to give you the results you want when you light.

11) Being Afraid to Mixing Color Temperatures

Another principle taught in film schools and lighting textbooks is correcting lights of various color temperatures within a scene so they match one source (or adjusting the white balance on your digital camera to the most dominant lighting source). Take a look around at what you see in real life and you realize this is another rule that begs to be broken. Mixing color temperatures when you’re shooting on film will actually give the colorist more to work with in post which can lead to some really stunning images.

12) Murky or Washed out Images

When you under expose all areas of a scene the results are images that are murky and flat from being placed too low on the toe of the negative. This image lack contrast and fails to give the eye comparative areas of highlights and shadows. If you overexpose all areas of a scene placing them too high on the shoulder of the negative, the result are images washed out, without contrast. Without shadow detail the eye is once again denied comparative areas of highlights and shadows.

13) Becoming a slave to your light meter.

When lighting a scene a common practice is to try and meter every thing in the scene. That’s a mistake because your meter can’t answer the most important questions, which is “How do I want this to look?” “How do I want to expose this? Put your meter away, take a look at the scene and then light it the way you think it should look. When you’re finished then read the meter. Learn to trust your eyes.

14) DV Lighting vs. Film Lighting

Good lighting is good lighting, regardless of the medium and that takes time. Granted it’s harder to light DV and make it look good than if you were shooting film. This is due to film’s greater exposure latitude and tonal range. The exposure tolerance is DV has a narrower exposure tolerance is unforgiving towards over-exposed highlights or crushed blacks. Of course, this is all the more reason for you to use a matte box, neutral density filters, and to light carefully.

15) Ignoring the rule: Block, Light, Rehearse, (Adjust) Shoot

DV shot films are especially guilty of ignoring this rule. Not following this on set will not only waste time but also it can completely demoralize your crew. If you set your lights before the scene is blocked you may discover that your lights are in the frame line. Or you learn that the blocking requires you to re light the entire scene. Watch as the director blocks the scene with the actors, light the set, watch the rehearsal, make any minor adjustments and then shoot.

Frame Mode

Basically, Frame Mode on the XL-1 creates 30 full frames per second, as apposed to a normal 60 half-resolution frames (a field). You’ll notice a more fluid, almost ‘strobe’ effect on the picture. This is the first key in achieving a film look.

Depth of Field

I usually try to keep the depth of field as minimal as possible; on the XL-1s, that means keeping the Iris (F-Stop) at an F1.6 to F2.0. This, combined with a telephoto lens, will allow you to significantly throw the back ground out of focus. There are a few ways to achieve this with the combination of Iris, Shutter and Gain. A smaller iris usually means you’ll have to compensate with a higher shutter speed. The lens on the Xl-1′s also have a built in Neutral Density (ND) filter to compensate for too much light; this should be used if you do not want the look of the high speed shutter. By adjusting the Gain control to compensate for the iris and shutter, you can add the right amount of grain as well. Like all other facets of digital video, you should experiment with this to see which look works best for you.

Light

For exteriors, I’ve mostly shot on an overcast day or kept the subject backlit by the sun. An overcast day will obviously give an overall soft light and playing with the white balance, you can get the look of shooting tungsten film outside without a filter. In direct sunlight, a subject that is backlit with a simple bounce card or reflector to light their face looks very nice. When a subject is in full sunlight, I’d hit them with some serious reflectors to even out the shadows and contrast. When you have more control over the light, say, for interiors, and you have a budget, Kino-Flo lights work great for DV. They will give a nice soft light and a great eye-light as well. Basically, I’ve found that DV looks best when shot under a big, soft light. There’s really no wrong way to achieve this. Since it’s video, you should have a monitor to look at and go with whatever looks best to you. Again, tests are a great idea if you have the time.

Post Production

I’ve tried to achieve the best film look in the production process, but there are several ways to get it even closer in post. You can shoot in normal mode (as opposed to Frame mode) and either run it through a program like Cine-look or another program that simulates film grain and colors, or you could send it to a company like Film Look in LA, who have a proprietary process for creating a film look out of normal 30 frame, 60 field video. Some tricks I’ve used are to take the final images, put a 10% to 20% blur on them, then superimpose this blurred image over the same normal image. It basically creates a soft filter look. Tweaking the contrast after this ‘blur-filter’ is put on can create a nice look as well. I’ve also used gradient and vignette graphic overlays created in Photoshop to simulate filters in front of the lens.

Exterior shot under overcast sky; Shutter speed = 1/60, Iris = 1.6, Gain = 0, ND Filter ON, White Balance set to Tungsten light

Interior shot with soft Blue/Green Gelled light & smoke machine; shutter speed = 1/60, Iris – 1.6 Gain = 0, White Balance set to Tungsten light

Back-lit subject under direct sunlight with reflectors; Shutter speed = 1/300, Iris = 5.6 to 8, gain = 0 White Balance set to sunlight. This is the result of the shot that Frazer is setting up in the “Frazer & Cameras” still; Six cameras on the first take, then three cameras on a second take, resulting in nine small frames to make up one shot.

Subjects in direct sunlight with reflectors to bring
down the contrast; Shutter speed = 1/300, Iris = 5.6 to 8, gain = 0 White Balance set to sunlight. Four cameras, doing three takes to make up one- 12-panel shot.

On the Velvet Teen video, shrinking down each shot really boosted up the resolution of the final shots, giving it much less of a video look.

It all boils down to what you think looks good. There’s many ways to achieve a good cinematic look in digital video. These are just a few of my own techniques.

Here are 10 tips on directing a Low Budget Music Video. These tips may not always apply to every situation or concept, but they may prove helpful one way or another. They are broken down into the key departments of a production to make them easier to understand.

Tip 1: Selecting The Crew

· A small crew travels fast, so use as few crew members as possible. Hire those that are diverse in their talents and can work several jobs simultaneously. A good example is a Production Assistant who does craft service or a makeup artist who handles wardrobe.

· Look for crew members who are ambitious and looking to establish advanced production credits, such as an art assistant who wants to art direct, a loader who wants to pull focus or a grip who wants to become a gaffer. People like these will work for less and usually give the job their best effort.
· Find people who are willing to volunteer their services to gain experience. It never hurts to have an extra set of hands on the set.

· Network with organizations such as the MVPA. This is an excellent way to develop new working relationships within the music video community. These organizations have access to a number of resources and crew personnel who might be willing to work together with you.

· If you have the knowledge, try to shoot and edit your project. Developing your skills as a DP or editor will gain you a wealth of knowledge as a Director while saving you thousands on your project.

Tip 2: The Location

· Utilize locations that are private, free or require a minimal permit expense. Don’t risk getting caught without a permit. You may not afford to have your production held up or rescheduled, your camera package confiscated and fines in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. You may even be placed on a list at the film permit office that could inevitably blackball you as a location poacher. Meaning that you may have to pay for additional set monitors on upcoming shoots, or worse, you may be restricted from securing future permits altogether. Most city/county/state permitting fees are relatively inexpensive if you are able to keep your crew and equipment to a minimum. Obtaining a permit would probably avoid a lot of embarrassment and trouble down the road.

· Always look for other options that may be available. For instance, your client may have access to a property that you can use for free or for a minimal cost. Maybe you can dress up a few insert shots in your own backyard.

· Avoid building complicated sets and backdrops. They are expensive and quite costly to light. For that matter, shooting interiors can be equally expensive to light, but at times unavoidable.

· Scout your own locations whenever possible. Pulling a film permit is not as complicated as it sounds and location scouts/managers can sometimes run up quite a tab. It is not hard to do it yourself. It saves you money and the satisfaction you will receive from knowing you have exhausted every resource to find that perfect location can be highly rewarding. Many film permit offices house a library of available locations or check with your local chamber of commerce or City/State/Federal government. They will often supply you with maps that can be used to find unknown locations with just a little extra effort. The Bureau of Land Management can also prove to be an excellent source for locations. They are a Federal Agency that governs both used and unused public land throughout the country.

Tip 3: Equipment

· When working with lighting and grip, try to work out package deals from private parties who own their own grip, lighting and generator equipment. Some small vendors will even provide such things as video assist or location playback sound for free just to establish new clientele.

· Utilize inexpensive lighting resources such as natural light when at all possible. Try building your own reflector boards from supplies found at your local Home Depot or you can even make low budget Kino-Flos from inexpensive fluorescent banks or shop lights.

· Camera gear can sometimes be secured with those who own their own packages. They will often rent cheaper than a camera house and may even DP, operate or 1st AC on your project.

· Many things can be easily substituted with makeshift solutions. For example, an audio playback system complete with time code reference can be easily made from a number of stereo components or musical P.A. gear. All that’s required is a little ingenuity and effort. With any two stereo channels, you can easily layback a mono mix of the audio intended for playback while reserving the second channel for code. If a T.C. slate isn’t available, record to your source and then play back the window burn on a TV monitor. A laptop computer can also be substituted for the smart-slate or TV for more remote possibilities.

· In some instances, equipment can be purchased for a little than the cost of a rental. If you intend to use such an item repeatedly over time, it may be beneficial to purchase it for future use.

Tip 4: The Talent & Wardrobe

· Talent and Wardrobe are typically separate departments, but for the low budget video it works out rather well when the two are working together. Ask talent to bring their own clothes to the casting call with the extra incentive of giving them a wardrobe allowance to use their own rags. Many times they will take that allowance and purchase new clothes for the shoot anyway, just to look their best. The artist can often provide their own stage wardrobe, but if they are looking for something new or different you may have to shop for the wardrobe yourself. One approach is to purchase as many appropriate items as you can, be careful to avoid damaging items during the fitting and then return any unused items after the shoot.

· Do your own casting. You’re bound to learn a lot about directing talent and you’re more likely to make accurate decisions in your final choices. To avoid costly agency fees, use the Internet to find talent willing to be in a music video. Make sure you screen them carefully. If your budget is very tight, offer a copy of the completed video as an additional incentive or compensation. That promised copy for their show-reel can carry a lot of weight in negotiating their pay. Advertising for free talent is not always recommended. Paying what you can afford helps to guarantee enthusiasm on long shoot schedules and sometimes even their attendance. People working for free sometimes don’t feel as obligated as the ones you’re paying.

· As for extras, try to utilize the artist’s following (fans) or simply flyer an area that is demographically correct just before your shoot date. Usually the local community college grounds will suffice.

Tip 5: The Art Direction/Props

· This is a very broad area of the music video process since it deals with so many factors regarding the individual concept. When possible, focus your concept around the most simplistic of ideas; you won’t need to spend a lot on props and art direction. For example, what if your ideas centered around shooting an artist in a cardboard box or a simple unique backdrop? Or perhaps you have other talents that lend themselves to the art direction process such as painting, sculpture or 3D animation. You may actually be able to use things around the house. A little spray-paint, a little glue, some smoke and mirrors and the next thing you know you’ve got something that looks unusual and interesting on camera. All animated and affected in After Effects with amazingly wonderful results. Substitute the money you would spend on props with sparks from your own imagination.
For example: Say you want to burn a grand piano on a salt flat in the desert. A grand piano could cost you thousands. Instead, you rent a functional piano for your close-ups and performance shots, and then bring in a junk piano that bares the same paint job for the fire scenes. Shoot it wide so nobody can tell it’s not the same piano. You end up with a very effective idea captured on film that looks like you spent big bucks. You can probably find a junk piano for three hundred dollars at a piano repair shop or in some local penny saver newspaper. You may even find one for free if you are willing to pay to haul it away.

Top 6: The Film & Video Stock

· Short-ends or buy-back (leftover film stock from other shoots) are good ways to purchase film stock cheap. You can purchase such stock directly from shoots that are nearing completion or from film brokers such as ShortEnz or Dr. Rawstock. Sometimes Kodak and Fuji will donate film or give discounts to students and young filmmakers. A little begging may be involved, but you may find their generosity to be quite rewarding.

· There are other filmmaking foundations that will on occasion buy your film stock for you as well, but you will have to invest time to research and pursue them.

Tip 7: Post & Editing

· Some labs will give considerable discounts if you can convince them your project is on a student level.

· Always shop around. You’ll find you can save a considerable amount of money on what is virtually an identical procedure no matter where you go.

· Telecine is a bit more of a fragile process. Deals can be negotiated, but with coloring as such a crucial step in the post process it’s always a good idea to know what equipment you’re actually working on and the colorist you are working with.

· Purchasing your own stock can save you money as well, but keep in mind that if a problem arose from a bad piece of tape stock (though extremely rare), the post house involved would not likely take responsibility for the time lost in recreating your project. Degaussed stock should never be used as a means of saving money. The risk is too great to outweigh the money saved.

· Find a way to make your own dubs. Rent a deck or simply ask to borrow what you need for a few hours.

· Editing bares yet another creative learning curve, but with such programs as Final Cut Pro and After Effects so readily available, it’s simply a matter of days to teaching yourself the basics to editing or compositing video. The rest will come with time and persistence.

Tip 8: Insurance

· The cost of insuring a production is extremely high. In recent years those figures have gone exceedingly higher with insurance riders costing well near the price of the rentals themselves on a low budget production. One way to sidestep this high cost is to piggyback with a production company who is already carrying an annual policy. They will usually welcome the additional revenue it brings. Some companies will even carry you for free if you pay the deductible up front as a show of good faith. Either way you will wind up with better coverage at a cheaper price. Some carriers won’t even insure short term policies anymore, especially if you mention things such as animals, children, stunts, helicopters or anything to do with fire. Whatever you do, don’t shoot without insurance! Though the likelihood is small, there are a million things that can go wrong, putting your production at risk. There are alternatives to securing the proper insurance, so do yourself a favor and research them.

Tip 9: Miscellaneous

· Try taking care of the little things on your own in advance, such as craft service or audio playback. There are many inexpensive solutions for these small, but important roles in a music video production set.

· Watch out for hidden costs such as; prep for telecine, setup time, contingencies, agency fees, special insurance, overtime, kit fees, etc. Always question what it will cost to avoid the surprise of a big bill at the end of the session. Know what you are buying or renting for your money.

· Know when it is appropriate to cut corners. Sometimes cutting corners in the wrong places will actually cost you more time and money while producing lesser results.

· Be efficient. Use storyboards and shot-lists to organize your shoot. A well-managed shoot will help to avert costly overages while providing an enhanced working experience. Preparing solid production notes in advance can also prove to be a big benefit on the set.

· Forfeit your Directing fees if at all possible on the first few gigs. It proves your dedication to the project on an artistic level and will gain your respect with the label.

Tip 10: Educate Yourself

· Even though this does not fall under the production category, it is an essential requirement in this very aggressively competitive marketplace.

· Research your ideas thoroughly before executing them. A botched video project rarely goes unnoticed and may even cost you a re-shoot. It may also cost you any future jobs by that client. There are tons of reference materials available in bookstores, online and everywhere around you.

- Need a location? Look in the backs of map-books under “Points of Interest”.
- Need a Llama? Don’t bother with expensive animal rental companies. Look in your local phonebook for petting zoos or maybe even private owners.

· By being resourceful you will always save money.

· By educating yourself you simply improve your chances as a Director. MVCI is just one of many film school options available out there. Take advantage of your options. Student discounts, free equipment, expert supervision. You may actually have more to gain than if you had done it on your own.

There are thousands of other shortcuts available for directing a low budget video and you will discover them and many more on your production. This is merely a sampling of ideas, designed to communicate the inspiration for resourceful directing and producing.